Syria war: Aleppo pounded by air strikes for second day, More than 80 killed

Air strikes and artillery have pounded rebel-held districts of eastern Aleppo for a second day, killing dozens of people, damaging medical facilities and flattening residential buildings.

Sources told Al Jazeera on Wednesday that at least 84 people had been killed and dozens wounded in and around Aleppo city over the past 48 hours, as air raids launched by Syrian jets rained down on rebel-held areas amid a new government offensive

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 21 people, including five children and an emergency worker, were killed on Wednesday in the al-Shaar, al-Sukkari, al-Sakhour and Karam al-Beik neighbourhoods.

“The helicopters won’t stop for a single moment,” Bebars Mishal, a member of the Syrian Civil Defence, a first responder group that operates in rebel-held areas, told Reuters news agency.

“Right now, the bombing won’t let up.”

Al Jazeera’s Osama bin Javaid, reporting from Kilis on the Turkish side of the Turkey-Syria border, said casualty figures were “rising by the hour.

“One of the worst-hit areas is the al-Shaar neighbourhood where at least 18 barrel bombs struck, one of them near a children’s hospital and a school.

“We have seen disturbing scenes of residents holding up body parts of relatives killed in air strikes,” he added.

“So what we’re seeing on the ground is utter desperation on the part of the people of Aleppo who are not sure what to do because they can’t actually go into shelters, and if they stay at home they are at risk of being bombed.”

Adham Sahloul, of the Syrian American Medical Society, which supports several hospitals in opposition areas, said it appeared the government was focusing its fire on Aleppo’s medical infrastructure.

There are only five functioning trauma facilities left in eastern Aleppo, Sahloul told the Associated Press news agency.

The Independent Doctors Association, which supports several facilities in Syria, said eastern Aleppo’s central blood bank was struck in Wednesday’s attacks, as well as a children’s hospital supported by the association.

“Me and my staff and all the patients are sitting in one room in the basement right now,” a pediatrician who identified himself only as Dr. Hatem posted in a note that was cited by the association. “We will try to get out when the air strikes leave our sky. Pray for us please.”

The impact on east Aleppo’s densely packed civilian neighbourhoods has been devastating. More than 250,000 civilians are still trapped in rebel-held areas, with dwindling food supplies and extremely limited medical care.

“There were scenes of desperation when there was a brief pause in the air strikes,” Al Jazeera’s Javaid said. “Residents in one area raided a food bank – people are desperate and hungry.”

The Syrian army cut the last supply route into rebel-held territory in July and the last time supplies reached east Aleppo was in August.

Aleppo has become the fiercest front in Syria’s five-and-a-half-year war, pitting President Bashar al-Assad, supported by Russia, Iran and Shia militias, against Sunni rebels, including groups backed by Turkey, the United States and Gulf monarchies.